There is a sense of national and personal shock around Australia this week. Six people (five women and a man) and their attacker at the Bondi Junction knife attack are dead. Each death, including that of the disturbed attacker, sends ripples of tragedy into their…
“For if you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not.” (Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Humanitarianism and Strength, c. 1908) This telling comment, like so many by G.K. Chesterton, comes from an article invariably…
Unfortunately, we don’t have Anna writing our newsletter this week. Many of you have written to say how much you enjoy her reflections, and we hope to publish them all on a blog soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to access any of the…
I have been surprised and delighted to meet with and hear from some of the first generation of Thomas More Centre participants. Now some of these men and women have growing adolescent and young adult children of their own. They recount memories of their TMC…
St Thomas More, our centre’s titular inspiration and patron saint, was a master of words across a number of tongues. He was a prodigious letter writer, a poet, a composer of prayers, an orator and a legislator. Thomas More was not a mere literary stylist.…
“He was shocked by their mediocrity, cultural and spiritual. He could not understand why these young priests were setting out to make a professional career of clerical advancement. He rarely discovered one with an “authentic passion for study. They were so little curious to understand…
The activity of the Thomas More Centre in the online space is picking up! Two interviews – one with Alex Dee and the other with Larry Chapp – have been posted to our YouTube channel, while three more interviews are due to be posted over the…
Our mission at the Thomas More Centre is to promote the enduring tradition of Christian intellectual, cultural, and contemplative thought. To this end, we are fostering open-minded and stimulating conversations about subjects that concern the human condition and the common good. Because personal connection is…
Despite unprecedented access to a multitude of media tools and stimulation, many people today experience profound existential isolation, mental confusion and the fracturing of identity. Different generations have their own digital intoxicants of choice – Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat – each platform creating and clamouring for…
Many (many) years ago, while working in bioethics, I was invited by some teachers to a Catholic boys’ school to talk to the students about virtue and the culture of life. I was tempted to drop the phone (yes, it was what is now a…